


beware the stars for they tell you who you are

by Spoofymcgee



Series: AU-gust 2020 [2]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Found Families, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Good Dooku (Star Wars), Grandparent Dooku (Star Wars), Human Disaster Ahsoka Tano, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, M/M, Modern AU, it's not mentioned but he does, yoda runs an orphanage, yoda's obi-wan anakin and ahsoka's great-grandfather
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25708048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoofymcgee/pseuds/Spoofymcgee
Summary: barriss is late for her first day of class an runs into a really pretty girl, in the most literal sense of the word. a series of misunderstandings and ahsoka's obliviousness lead to some complications.
Relationships: Barriss Offee & Ahsoka Tano, Barriss Offee & Luminara Unduli, Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano, CC-1004 | Gree & Barriss Offee, CC-1004 | Gree & Barriss Offee & Luminara Unduli, CC-1004 | Gree/Luminara Unduli, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, Jon Antilles/CT-7567 | Rex, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: AU-gust 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861135
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	beware the stars for they tell you who you are

The moon is full, sending long-fingered rays to gleam off the silver ribbons braided into Ahsoka’s hair and glitter illuminate Barriss’ eyes as she turns on her side to meet Ahsoka’s gaze   
“The stars are beautiful tonight.”   
“They are. You know what else is beautiful?”   
“Hmm?”   
“You.” Barriss nudges Ahsoka’s shoulder with her own.   
“You sap.”    
“But I’m your sap.” Ahsoka replies, propping herself up on an elbow. Two meticulously woven braids of navy and grey fall over her shoulders and the moonlight casts half of her features into shadow.    
_ And I can’t believe how lucky I am _ , Barriss thinks.  
“You are.” she says.

It had been November when they’d first met, and the wind had been whipping at the edges of Barriss’ headscarf and whirling the hem of her skirt around her ankles.. She’d been hurrying, already late to her first morning class. Gree had called the night before and she’d stayed up late, excitedly informing him about her schedule, the campus and now she would be late to her first class!   
She’d rounded the corner and crashed into another person.  
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Fudge, maybe Obi-Wan was right, and I do need to be more aware of my surroundings.”   
“I’m okay.” Barriss had said, shaking her head slightly and pressing a hand to the bump she could feel forming before opening her eyes.    
And-oh, no, she’s cute. The girl standing in front of her has big blue eyes and navy cornrows pulled back into matching buns and woven through with gold ribbons that sparkle a bit in the early sunlight. White patches on her forehead and cheeks contrast with darker skin and match the glitter of silvery beads strung through her braids. She’s wearing some kind of sleeveless top laced up the sides and black leggings paired with knee high boots and half a dozen colorful armbands. She also looks like a complete human disaster.   
“Are you sure? That bump looks bad. Do you want to go to the nurse or something? Do they have nurses in university?”   
“I’m sure. I’ll be fine, and there’s an infirmary next to the office building, but I don’t need to go. Would you mind helping me up?” The girl looks slightly embarrassed, and holds out a hand, hauling Barriss to her feet.   
“I really am sorry.” she says.  
“It’s all right. I should have been minding where I was going. I’m Barriss Offee.”   
“Ahsoka Tano.” Barriss presses a hand to her mouth.    
“I know you! You’re Rex’s best friend, right?” Ahsoka looks pleasantly surprised.   
“Yeah. You know Rex?” Barriss blushes.   
“Not exactly. I know of him, but we’ve never met. See-”   
“Wait, are you Gree’s daughter?” She’s wide-eyed and looks delighted at the possibility. Barriss makes a face.   
“Technically. But he’s not exactly my dad. He’s my… Gree.” She shrugs. “Is that weird?”   
“I mean, probably, but I’m not really one to talk when it comes to family stuff.” Ahsoka’s phone buzzes and then starts to play Hello by Adele. “Oh, heck. I’ve gotta go, but I’d love to meet up later?”   
“Sure. Are you free this afternoon?” Ahsoka thinks for a moment, then nods.   
“Yeah. Here,” she whips out a marker and scrawls a string of numbers on Barriss’ palm. “Call me.”    
She darts off, waving at the corner and then sprinting away. 

The first time Ahsoka heard Barriss laugh was later the same day. They’d been sitting in a tiny cafe she’d found a few months earlier and automatically fallen in love with. Fiery leaves had been floating slowly to the ground outside the window and Barriss had wrapped both hands around her mug of hot chocolate to ward off the autumn cold.    
“-And I stood there staring at him for a solid five minutes after I walked in the door, just frozen. I mean it’s his hair, but-”   
“-but you have to be seen in public with him occasionally.” Ahsoka finishes, grinning into her coffee, which probably shouldn’t count as such because it’s 90 percent chocolate and whipped cream. “I actually can’t believe it. Do you have a picture?”    
“Yeah, I think I do.” Barriss pulls out her phone, scrolling through her pictures until she finds one with Gree in it. Ahsoka goes silent when she sees it.    
“Please tell me you’re kidding.” She begs.   
“Nope,” Barriss laughs. “But that’s what I said too.”   
“It’s a travesty!” Ahsoka exclaims, shooting out of her seat and banging both palms on the table.    
“Ahsoka!” Barriss can barely keep from falling out of her chair for mirth. “Sit down!”   
“No, this can’t stand.”   
Finally sitting, Ahsoka crosses her arms and pouts, nearly knocking Barriss out of her chair with how cute she looks. Glancing over to her, she smiles.    
“You have a really pretty laugh.” she says.   
“Thank you.” Barriss smiles. Ahsoka’s phone pings. She opens it and just stares for a minute.   
“Ahsoka? Is everything all right?”    
Her eyes are wide, lips a perfect O.    
“What the heck, Skyguy?” she mutters, turning the phone to Barriss.    
It’s a short and shaky clip of a tall, blond young man running in circles. His jacket appears to be on fire. The person filming is cracking up. “Stop, drop and roll, Anakin!” Someone calls from behind the camera. “There’s nothing about running around like a headless chicken!”   
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!” The blond man, Anakin apparently, screams. Another man, shaved scalp covered in jagged tattoos walks into the frame carrying a really big bucket. He dumps it on Anakin, eliciting more shouts and more peals of laughter from the person filming. The screen goes dark.    
“So, that’s Anakin.” Barriss says after a long pause.    
“Yep.” Ahsoka grins. “He’s a genius and a complete human disaster. Don’t tell him I said that, though. I’ll never live it down.”

  
  


The first date Barriss goes on with Ahsoka is a week and a half after they’ve met. The afternoon before, she’d asked Ahsoka to get dinner with her, and was met with enthusiastic compliance. She’d chosen a calm little cafe on the corner of Revan and Jinn, mostly for their ravioli.    
“This is incredible!” Ahsoka exclaims, eyes wide as she stares down at her dish. Barriss grins.   
“That’s high praise, coming from you.” she teases, dabbing at the corner of her mouth with a napkin. Ahsoka pouts.   
“Well at least I have taste!” she argues, crossing her arms. “Half my  _ vode _ will eat anything if you coat it in chocolate.” Barriss frowns.   
“Anything?”   
“Anything.” Ahsoka confirms with a grim look. Barriss winces. “But I don’t want to talk about them. I want to tell you what happened in my Social Psychology lecture today.”   
“Is this about Professor Burke’s six inch stilettos and the sandwich?”   
“No, that was last week. Today…” Ahsoka doesn’t seem to notice how she slowly inches closer to Barriss as she talks.

  
  


It was a cool afternoon in the early winter when Barriss met Ahsoka’s family. “Okay, some of the unwritten rules for Fett family gatherings.” Ahsoka announces. They’re standing a ways away from Rex’s apartment where the Sunday barbecue is being held this week. “Well, technically, the written rules, because Kix made an actual list that he tapes up on the door of wherever we’re having it. Number one: Tup is ad’ika, and we do not upset him.” Barriss nods. “Two: if Wolffe is involved in something, biting is allowed. Three: on the rare occasions Nico Diath and Dooku both attend, a minimum of twenty feet and eight people must be kept between them, _ you do not want to know why. _ ” she stresses the last words as Barriss opens her mouth. She closes it, accepting this with half a shrug. “Four: anyone publicly displaying affection beyond handholding is liable to have anything not on Kix’s list of potentially lethal objects, which is taped to the door beside the rules, thrown at them.” The corners of Barriss’ mouth twitches, and she mimes taking notes.   
“Please, go on, Professor Ahsoka. I want to get a good grade on the exam.” Ahsoka glowers at her, and she drops her hands. “Thank you.” she says sincerely, and just like that her girlfriend is cheerful again.

“Hey, ‘Soka! Who’s this?” The moment they walk in the door, a tall man, circular tattoo covering a good part of his head, envelops Ahsoka in a hug.    
“This,” she says, squirming out of the embrace and gesturing to Barriss. “Is Barriss Offee.” There are several exclamations of surprise from all over the room.    
“Gree’s kid, right?” someone questions. She thinks it’s Cody, Gree’s older brother, but can’t be sure.    
Barriss nods. “Is he back then?”   
“He didn’t tell you?” she asks, surprised. “I knew he was bad at communication, but we’ve been back for three months already.” A redheaded man with a full beard sticks his head out from behind the wall to what she presumes is the kitchen. He appears to be wearing a frilly apron in pink, red and white.   
“Luminara’s back?!” he demands. “And she didn’t tell me?”    
“Obi-Wan! Don’t harass Barriss! I’m sure it’s not her fault.” Ahsoka scolds him, walking across the room to hug him.    
“Snips!” Another man tall and blond barrels into Ahsoka. She punches him in the arm and he tugs affectionately on one of her braids.   
“You’re Anakin, right?” Barriss asks, recognizing him.   
“That’s me!”   
“Ahsoka showed me the video of you on fire.” she tells him. He whirls on the redhead.   
“Obi-Wan! You said you’d deleted it!” Ah, so he’s Obi-Wan. Cody’s his husband, if she’s remembering correctly. She looks around for someone to talk to in favor of standing around awkwardly.  
“You can sit here if you’d like.” someone says. She turns and-   
“You’re Tup, right?” He’s got a sweet, if a little shy, expression on and a long braid that drapes over his shoulder, nearly reaching his waist. He doesn’t look more than seventeen   
“That’s me.”   
She takes the offered seat gratefully.    
“Would you mind telling me who’s who? Gree talks about everyone but he’s the actual worst about keeping in touch.” Tup smiles, and this kid could replace the sun.   
“Sure. That’s Jesse,” he says pointing to the tattooed man who’d hugged Ahsoka first. “Boil and Waxer are over there,” two men, one with a mustache and the other completely bald. “Dogma’s over there with Hardcase,” an unhappy twelve year old arguing with another kid who looks about fifteen. “And Rex, Cody and Obi-Wan are in the kitchen.”   
She grins at him.   
“Thank you!”   
“Anytime. You go to Coruscant University with Ahsoka?” he asks.  
“Yeah. I’m pre-med.” she fiddles with the edge of her headscarf.   
“That’s so cool! Do you know what kind of doctor you want to be?” he’s practically glowing with innocence and awe, and Barriss kind of wants to poke him.   
“A pediatrician,” She answers instead. “When I was in the system, before I found Gree and Luminara, there was this one foster home… But I was lucky and they caught it pretty quickly. Everything was big and cold and scary, and there was this one woman who was just so nice. I decided I wanted to be like her when I grew up.” Another person who looks almost exactly like Tup and his brothers-save for his hair, which is buzzed and blond-finds his way over, Ahsoka tugging at his arm. Barriss stands.   
“So you’re the famous Barriss Offee.” he says, lips quirking into a grin. “I was wondering when    
the commander would let us meet you.”   
“That would be me. The commander?”   
“Rex’s dumb nickname for me.” Ahsoka grumbles. “Anyway…”   
The room is full of laughter and Barriss knows she’s met her people.

When Ahsoka finally realized that, not only does she like Barriss, she  _ likes _ Barriss, it was unfortunately in the middle of her weekly phone call with Dooku. She’d been wandering around her dorm aimlessly, telling him about her feminist theory course, and had picked up the little coulorful snowglobe she keeps on her desk, grinning as she’d remembered how Barriss had given it to her on their last outing.    
“What’s this for?” she’d asked.   
“It’s been a month and a half.” Barriss had answered, smiling mysteriously.    
Ahsoka loves Barriss’ smile.   
Frick. Ahsoka loves Barriss’ smile.   
Ahsoka loves Barris.  
“Oh, heck.” she says out loud. Dooku’s voice is tinny through the speakers as he asks: “Ahsoka? Is everything alright?”   
“No! Oh, this is bad.” she flops down onto her bed, on top of the covers.   
“What is, child?”    
She’s never particularly minded when Dooku calls her that. It never sounds patronizing, of as if he considers her less mature for her age. Simply less experienced than him.    
“I think I’m in love with Barriss.” she tells him. He’s silent for a moment.   
“That’s Luminara’s daughter?” There’s a clicking noise on the other end, as though he’s typing something.   
“Yeah. What do I do?”   
“Well, do you think she likes you back?”   
It’s Ahsoka’s turn to be quiet.    
“I don’t know.”   
“I’d suggest that you start by finding out, then.” he says, and someone who sounds suspiciously like Nico Diath shouts in the background: “YAN DOOKU!”    
“Is that-”   
“I’m afraid I must go, Ahsoka, best of luck to you!”    
“I was on the phone with my granddaughter, Nico, honestly, why must you be so-” The line goes dead. Ahsoka stares at her phone in bemusement for a moment before typing out a message to the Fett clan server.    


Snippy Commander: just got off the phone with dooku

Snippy Commander: i guess wooley and longshot get their turn at being flowergirls

Snippy Commander: what colors do you think nico will want them in?

Redheaded Menace: cURSE YOU REX 

Redheaded Menace: OUT OF ALL THE AVAILABLE HUMANS ON OUR PLANET YOU HAD TO PICK THE BEST FRIEND OF DOOKU’S OLD FLING’S NEPHEW

Captain Rexter: i’m sorry okay how was i supposed to know he’d come to family reunions

  
  


The fifteenth date Barriss goes on with Ahsoka is one of their weekly study sessions. It’s also a complete disaster. They’ve taken to getting together every Sunday afternoon for an hour or so to review the new material in Basic Psychology, the one overlapping course they have, before setting off for the barbecue.    
“Come on, Ahsoka, you know this.” Barriss says, a hint of exasperation slipping into her tone.   
“No I don’t!” Ahsoka wails, dramatically throwing herself backwards onto the carpet. Snow is falling softly outside the window, and Ahsoka was lucky enough to get one of the dorm rooms with a rug, so they study at hers.   
“If you get the question right, I’ll kiss you.” Barriss says, in a stroke of genius. Ahsoka sits bolt upright, giving her a wide eyed stare. Barriss grins back mischievously   
“Uhm… the hypothalamus?” she says, and Barriss’ smile widens. She leans forward and presses a short kiss to Ahsoka’s lips.   
“You… you kissed me.” Ahsoka murmurs dazedly, after a pause. She lifts a hand and presses it to her mouth.   
“Well I said I would, didn’t I?” Barriss replies, tilting her head sideways. “It’s not like it’s out of the blue. I think three months is taking it plenty slow enough.”   
“Three… months?” Ahsoka asks, clearly very confused.   
“Since we started dating.” Barriss answers, chest constricting.   
“We’re dating?!” Ahsoka blurts, gaze wide with shock.   
Barriss flinches her hand back from where it was resting on Ahsoka’s shoulder like she’s been burnt.    
“Oh, it’s six, I need to go.” she’s grabbed her satchel and books, and is out of the room before Ahsoka can finish saying: “Barriss, wait!”    
Ahsoka glances at her clock. Four thirty. 

“And then, like and idiot, I said: ‘We’re dating?!” Ahsoka’s draped half over the side of the couch, braids trailing on the wooden floor and arm flung upwards dramatically.   
“I think you’ve officially reached new levels of human disaster.” Rex replies, humming as he examines the nearly finished pair of mittens he’s been working on for the past two weeks.  
“I know!” she groans, flopping. “What do I do?”   
“Probably apologize?” he guesses, shrugging at her when she glares at him. “Just because I’m dating Jon doesn’t mean I know how I did it.”   
“Who do you want me to ask, Cody? I want to date her, not marry her.” Then, tapping her chin consideringly with the tip of a finger, she adds: “Not yet, anyway.”  
“It was one time!” Cody shouts from the kitchen, and she thinks she can hear Obi-Wan spluttering.   
“Exactly!” she calls, and turns back to Rex, who’s abandoned his mittens in favor of texting someone.   
“She… knows… she… was… a… complete… dumbass… and-”   
“Hey!” Ahsoka yells, and lunges for his phone. There are a few moments of scrambling, and Rex ends up on top of the wardrobe, cell clutched in his hand. She jumps for him, but isn’t tall enough to reach.   
“Is… very sorry. She… also… thinks… you… are… very… pretty-”   
“Smart, witty and kind.” Ahsoka grumbles from the bottom of the closet. Rex concedes with a nod, and finishes typing.    
“And… sent.” Ahsoka rolls her eyes, and slumps back off to the bed.

  
  


Barriss is not sure what she was expecting to find when she opens the door to her dorm the next day, but it most definitely was not Ahsoka, dressed in an oversized sweater and jeans, holding two take-away cups and looking as though she hasn’t slept in a week.   
“Give me two minute?” she asks, and Barriss couldn’t possibly turn down that face. “I brought coffee.”    
She sighs and opens the door.

“I messed up.” Ahsoka confesses the moment she’s inside. “I messed up big time. I missed all the signs and I’m really, really sorry.” Barriss hums, and dips her chin in acceptance.    
“It’s not all your fault. I simply assumed when you said ‘It’s a date!’ the first time we went out for dinner together that you meant it literally.” Ahsoka stares at her for a second, then bashes a palm into the side of her own head.   
“I did say that, didn’t I? That would be the logical assumption. What an idiot I am, managing to date the girl I like and not even realizing it until she spells it out for me.” she mumbles, then looks up to meet Barriss’ surprised gaze. “I like you.” she says clearly. “A lot. And I was going to ask you out yesterday, but apparently I’ve already done that.” Barriss is quiet for a minute, then she laughs.   
“Only us, Ahsoka.”  
Ahsoka makes an affronted noise, then-   
“Have dinner with me tonight? We can go stargazing afterward.” she asks, and Barriss leans forward to hug her instead of answering.

**Author's Note:**

> if anyone's interested, here's some things i couldn't figure out how to include in the fic:  
> -luminara and gree are archaeologists, they've been excavating various sites for the past fifteen or so years, and don't come back to coruscant city where most of gree's family lives almost at all.  
> -they did come back once about four years before the story is set, but barriss has gone to boarding school since she was fifteen, so she didn't come back with them.   
> -barriss and ahsoka are in their senior year of university.  
> -ahsoka is a gender studies major  
> -jon and tae diath are best friends (that's in the fic, but phrased a little confusingly)  
> just random facts about them. hope you enjoyed!


End file.
